Introduction:
The drive to connect The United States from California to New York, and from Texas to Montana came with a price that as a country is difficult to ignore. The idealizing of the Western Landscape led to a series of efforts by the railroads and the "settlers" who came West to somehow justify the expansion of the USA ever closer to the Pacific Coast, and implicitly, Oceania and the Orient. European expansion into the lands of Indigenous Peoples worldwide was replicated in the American West through the movement of various tribes into "empty lands" often removed from the tribes' hunting and sacred lands. Animals the plains tribes hunted were systematically exterminated. Even today, certain interest groups are trying to eliminate the largest herd of wild bison that survived the late 19th Century kill-off. The effect upon Western wildlife and Indigenous tribes was devastating. Government treaties were signed and then broken. Tribes were generally marginalized to the most barren of locations, with only a few able to keep their traditional homelands.
Thanks to Beware of Images for this excellent image!!
The phrases "savage" and "animal" were applied to humans whose misfortune was being in the way of the expansion of the United States westward. Tribes that had been initially friendly to early European and American trappers and mappers turned hostile, such as the Mandan and Nez Perce. The devaluation and dehumanizing of tribes and their members led to military missions to either bring the "free" tribes to reservations, or to exterminate them. The practice of "scalping" was blamed on various tribes, when in fact, many Indigenous People only retaliated in kind when they found their dead mutilated by US soldiers. Land was viewed as a commodity by Americans, something that was never done by tribes. Quotes from Indigenous leaders in the second half of the 19th Century showed that the Native Peoples generally considered the US settlers and military as insane, duplicitous, or both. Before their cultures were crushed under the steamroller of Western Expansion, a few US citizens valued tribal members and culture, and recorded their lives and appearances before their way of life was diminished, and in some tragic cases, gone. Tribes struggled to preserve their sharing of lands communally, while being asked to transform their style of living from hunting to farming by Tribal Agents appointed by Washington.
George Catlin-A Life of Documenting Indigenous Peoples:
Following the annexation of Louisiana through purchase of the lands from France, the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled to Ft. Clatsop on the Oregon Pacific Coast and returned. Some of the men who accompanied the expedition spent subsequent years exploring the region. The legendary John Colter was the first or one of the first Americans to explore the Yellowstone region. His stories of geysers, mud pots, and other natural features were considered to be exaggerations for many years. Because so few people from the USA made their way West, for Indigenous Tribes, seeing the White Man was rare. Into this relative vacuum came George Catlin. Catlin became known for his paintings of different Tribes throughout the Americas. In the 1830s, Catlin lived in St. Louis, Missouri, and traveled the American Great Plains and Rocky Mountains visiting various tribes, who apparently tolerated his presence. His historical website, georgecatlin.org, is an excellent source for viewing these groundbreaking and historical depictions of Great Plains tribes.
The drive to connect The United States from California to New York, and from Texas to Montana came with a price that as a country is difficult to ignore. The idealizing of the Western Landscape led to a series of efforts by the railroads and the "settlers" who came West to somehow justify the expansion of the USA ever closer to the Pacific Coast, and implicitly, Oceania and the Orient. European expansion into the lands of Indigenous Peoples worldwide was replicated in the American West through the movement of various tribes into "empty lands" often removed from the tribes' hunting and sacred lands. Animals the plains tribes hunted were systematically exterminated. Even today, certain interest groups are trying to eliminate the largest herd of wild bison that survived the late 19th Century kill-off. The effect upon Western wildlife and Indigenous tribes was devastating. Government treaties were signed and then broken. Tribes were generally marginalized to the most barren of locations, with only a few able to keep their traditional homelands.
Thanks to Beware of Images for this excellent image!!
The phrases "savage" and "animal" were applied to humans whose misfortune was being in the way of the expansion of the United States westward. Tribes that had been initially friendly to early European and American trappers and mappers turned hostile, such as the Mandan and Nez Perce. The devaluation and dehumanizing of tribes and their members led to military missions to either bring the "free" tribes to reservations, or to exterminate them. The practice of "scalping" was blamed on various tribes, when in fact, many Indigenous People only retaliated in kind when they found their dead mutilated by US soldiers. Land was viewed as a commodity by Americans, something that was never done by tribes. Quotes from Indigenous leaders in the second half of the 19th Century showed that the Native Peoples generally considered the US settlers and military as insane, duplicitous, or both. Before their cultures were crushed under the steamroller of Western Expansion, a few US citizens valued tribal members and culture, and recorded their lives and appearances before their way of life was diminished, and in some tragic cases, gone. Tribes struggled to preserve their sharing of lands communally, while being asked to transform their style of living from hunting to farming by Tribal Agents appointed by Washington.
George Catlin-A Life of Documenting Indigenous Peoples:
Following the annexation of Louisiana through purchase of the lands from France, the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled to Ft. Clatsop on the Oregon Pacific Coast and returned. Some of the men who accompanied the expedition spent subsequent years exploring the region. The legendary John Colter was the first or one of the first Americans to explore the Yellowstone region. His stories of geysers, mud pots, and other natural features were considered to be exaggerations for many years. Because so few people from the USA made their way West, for Indigenous Tribes, seeing the White Man was rare. Into this relative vacuum came George Catlin. Catlin became known for his paintings of different Tribes throughout the Americas. In the 1830s, Catlin lived in St. Louis, Missouri, and traveled the American Great Plains and Rocky Mountains visiting various tribes, who apparently tolerated his presence. His historical website, georgecatlin.org, is an excellent source for viewing these groundbreaking and historical depictions of Great Plains tribes.
George Catlin-Self-Portrait 1835
Catlin as he looked in London for his European Lecture Tour-1848
George Catlin-1865
Courtestyof Smithsonian Online
George Catlin's Sample of the Paintings He Created
North American Portfolio
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
A Life Spent Among Indigenous Peoples:
Catlin lived from 1796 until 1872. At age 9, he encountered a very large Indigenous man by surprise when exploring the hills near his home. The man raised his hand, saying "I am peaceful" in sign language when Catlin thought he was going to die. The encounter made a lifelong impression on Catlin. Having been trained and in practice as an attorney, he became a renowned lecturer on the subject of Plains Tribes, and also Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. He assembled a set of over 600 paintings he had completed primarily during the 1830s and 1840s, many from the expeditions he made into the Yellowstone and Northern Rockies areas. His lectures were called "Catlin's Indian Gallery." He displayed his paintings in a traveling show, and sequenced them to sync up with a printed program which had a few sentences discussing each painting. His painting of the Crow, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, Mandan, Comanche, Assiniboine, and other tribes may be the first visual records of Indigenous Life on the Great Plains and Northern Rockies made by an American other than Lewis and Clark. The selection of Catlin's work here is just a sampling of an incredibly prolific artist. Whether one is put off or attracted to Catlin's unabashed self-promotion through his art, his work is a wonderful resource and visual history of Indigenous People and Tribes just prior to the American invasion.
Documenting Prominent Tribal Leaders:
Sauk Leader Black Hawk-George Catlin 1832
Courtesy georgecatlin.org
Black Hawk as a leader of Indigenous People was a giant, even in his time. Sauk people ranged from Eastern Iowa through Illinois into Southern Wisconsin. His confederation with the British during the War of 1812 created major headaches for the USA. He waged war as far east as Lake Erie. Catlin's study shows a handsome older man wearing Sauk jewelry of the period and holding what may be eagle feathers. This man was only 6 years from his death at 71. He lived a full life, leaving many descendants and friends, both Indigenous and American. Below is another portrait of Black Hawk, which may be compared with Catlin's, and a life mask, made the in same year as Catlin's portrait.
Portrait of Black Hawk - 1835
Life Mask of Black Hawk -1832
As may be discerned by the contrast, the second artist tended to show Black Hawk more severely, inaccurately depicting the roundness of his face, and giving him a more European nose than Catlin did. Catlin appeared to enjoy the process of having his subjects pose for his portraits, and it may be that Black Hawk either got to view his portrait, or saw some early studies for it. Human nature is universal, and many people are flattered by being asked to pose for a portrait.
Kee-O-Kuk-The Watchful Fox-Chief of the Sauk and Fox-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of georgecatin.org
Kee-O-Kuk, the successor to Black Hawk was more receptive to petitions for peace from the Americans. He was thought by them to be less "hostile." The city of Keokuk, Iowa bears his name.
White Cloud (Mahaskah) Chief of the Ioways-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
This is perhaps one of Catlin's most famous portraits. This leader was a forceful leader, and was known not to suffer foolish behavior. When an Ioway chief was killed by American "settlers," White Cloud petitioned the US Courts for justice. This was one of the first times a Nation's chief used US Courts.
Minneconjou (Teton) Dakota Chief Ha-won-je-tah (One Horn)-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Among the first portraits George Catlin painted on his voyage up the Missouri River in 1832 were those of the Sioux encamped at Fort Pierre. Again, Catlin's own commentary on his work is most apropos... Catlin described Ha-wón-je-tah as “A middle-aged man, of middling stature, with a noble countenance, and a figure almost equalling the Apollo, and I painted his portrait . . . He told me he took the name of ‘One Horn’ (or shell) from a simple small shell that was hanging on his neck, which descended to him from his father, and which, he said, he valued more than anything he possessed . . . This extraordinary man, before he was raised to the dignity of chief, was the renowned of his tribe for his athletic achievements. In the chase he was foremost; he could run down a buffalo, which he often had done, on his own legs, and drive his arrow to the heart. He was the fleetest in the tribe; and in the races he had run, he had always taken the prize. It was proverbial in his tribe, that Ha-won-je-tah's bow never was drawn in vain, and his wigwam was abundantly furnished with scalps that he had taken from his enemies' heads in battle.” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 1, nos. 26, 27, 1841, reprint 1973; Truettner, The Natural Man Observed, 1979)
Ordinary Daily Lives in Unordinary Times?:
Catlin, like the artists and photographers already highlighted in part 1 of this series, appeared to enjoy the process of becoming acquainted with the people, places, and wildlife of the West. There is a sense of Romanticism in his work, a yearning for a life that was under siege from the United States and it's citizens. Like the people profiled in the first part of this series, he wanted to make the subjects of his paintings better known, and also wanted to sell his works to the United States Government. Upon his death in 1872, Catlin was an artist in residence in the Smithsonian Castle. His works were donated by his widow to the Smithsonian in 1879.
Peh-Toh-Pee-Kiss/The Eagle Ribs-Blackfoot Nation-1832-Western Montana
Courtesy of georgecatlin.org
The Blackfoot Nation had a reputation that preceded them, in that they were almost legendary for their fighting prowess and their determination to keep foreigners (Americans and British) out of their sovereign territory. Their Nation was able to hang on to a portion of their traditional lands, which originally ranged from the Yellowstone Country north to what is now Southern Alberta and British Columbia. Their land today abuts Glacier National Park in Montana, and they have a reputation for litigiousness, having won a lawsuit against the US Government for haphazard accounting of the resources mined by private companies who did not accurately report earnings from the mineral rights on Blackfoot lands.
Here is Catlin's anecdotal commentary concerning this portrait:"This man is one of the extraordinary men of the Blackfoot Tribe, though not a chief. He stands here in the Fort (Union) and deliberately boasts of eight scalps which he says he has taken from the heads of trappers and traders with his own hand. His dress is really superb, almost literally covered with scalplocks of savage and civil. I have painted him at full length, with a headdress of ermine skins and horns of the buffalo. This custom of wearing horns beautifully polished and surmounting the headdress is a very curious one, being worn only by extraordinary men in the Nation. When he stood for his picture, he also held a lance and two "medicine-bags" in his hand." (Catlin Letters and Notes, vol. 1, pp 30, 34, pl. 14).
Stalking Buffalo with Wolf Skins-Texas-George Catlin-1832
Courtesy of georgecatlin.org
Sioux Sun Dance-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Comanche Indians Chasing Buffalo With Lances and Bows-1846 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Everyday life for the Indigenous Tribes of the Mountains and Plains revolved around five major activities. They were hunting or growing food, performing necessary spiritual functions, defending the tribe, tending Tribal and family matters, and, when time permitted, playing games or recreating.
Pictured above are two Catlin paintings which show Tribal hunting methods before and after the advent of the horse. Hunting prior to the horse was done through running bison off a precipice, channeling the herd's panic into a mass suicide off a cliff, or running down a bison after isolating it from the rest of the herd. Just south of the community in Montana where I live are two sites that focus on everyday life. The first is a "buffalo jump," which Tribes used to kill bison, and the cliff is about 500 feet over the Yellowstone Valley. There is also a ceremonial cave which is located nearby where tribes recorded their activities using paint derived from native plants. It is estimated the paintings could be as old as 15,000 years. The Lakota Sun Dance could be used as a purification ritual before or after bison hunts, or as a rite of thanks for a successful hunt. It is depicted here in a manner very close to my own observations when I was asked to attend a Sun Dance roughly 20 years ago.
The painting showing the men disguised as wolves is an actual bison hunt in progress, with the very obvious detail that no horses or firearms are present. The tribe is likely Comanche, but could also be Kiowa. Today's bow hunters use this sort of stealth wearing some sort of camouflage. The fact that wolf pelts are used is fascinating, in that the wolf was exterminated from the Southern Plains later in the 19th Century. Again, the detail is remarkable, in that we see bison in various types of poses, back, front in repose, and side. The largeness of these animals has to be seen in person to be appreciated for their size and speed. They are an awesome animal, and they are a part of most Indigenous Tribes' Oral History from The Mississippi River westward.
Constant Migration-Life On the Move:
Arikara Lodges 1600 Miles Above St. Louis-1832-by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Comanche Lodge-1838 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Traditional Crow Lodge of Twenty Five Buffalo Skins-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Crow Lodge-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Band of Sioux Moving-1838 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Comanche Moving Camp, Dog Fight En Route-1838 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
All of these scenes that George Catlin painted in the 1830s depict a migratory lifestyle based on the availability of game that also migrated from place to place where the prairie or mountain grasses were plentiful and water was nearby. Any study of these Nations will show that their knowledge of their hunting lands and ceremonial sites was encyclopedic, and that they understood that they needed to tread lightly on the lands they crossed because a lack of bison meant starvation. The ceremonial sites were at times held in common with other tribes, most likely allies. As an example, the Northern Cheyenne, Assiniboine, and Lakota share Bear Butte in South Dakota as a site for young men to seek visions to enter adulthood.
The feelings that Indigenous tribes have for such ceremonial sites is so deep and so ingrained that they will never give up trying to reclaim the lands stolen from them by the US Government. In one case, New Mexico's Taos Pueblo regained their sacred Blue Lake after nearly 60 years of being under US Forest Service control. The Lakota view the Black Hills, or Paha Sapa in their language, as a tribal sacred land stolen from them for mining gold, and have refused a payment of $1.3 Billion from Washington on principle.
Families-The Center of Tribal Life:
Head Chief Clermont and His Wife and Child-1841
Courtesy of georgecatlin.org
Sioux Mother and Baby With Cradleboard-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of georgecatlin.org
Chee-ah-ka-tchee, Wife of Not-to-way-1838 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Collection
Life on the Plains was usually difficult at best, but the Nations who lived there had a routine they followed throughout the year based upon their unique Tribal Beliefs. Women were generally respected, and were not only critical to daily life, but were generally considered to be wise in their ability to offer input to decisions concerning the welfare of the entire tribe.
In some cases, tribes were organized in a matrilineal manner, which many soldiers from the USA did not realize. Often warriors would not make commitments without considering the thoughts of their mothers, wives, and daughters. In the second and third paintings, the traditional cradleboard is depicted as it was used in the 19th Century. To divorce a man who was abusive or inattentive, all women had to do was set the husband's belongings outside the lodge. Clans ensured that children were literally raised by many women, including "aunties" who were related through the clan into which the children were born.
Women were often the "collective memory" of the tribal oral history, and the stories used in teaching children the ways of the world. Grandmothers were honored and were a resource of wisdom for young children, often teaching little ones certain skills that younger women did not always have time to teach. Children were generally indulged, and abuse was uncommon and rare. In return, children helped with animals, food preparation, and learned clan and tribal life through exposure to real life lessons. Life and death was a daily event in children's lives, and they learned that all life has a place in the function of life as an interdependent reality.
Tribal Decisions-Councils:
Interior View of a Mandan Medicine Lodge-O-Kee-Pa Ceremony-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of georgecatlin.com
Sioux War Council-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of georgecatlin.org
The Mandan Nation is the very same Tribe that offered shelter and food to the Lewis and Clark Expedtion in the winter of 1804-5. While this Tribe had a very easy meeting with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, this may have been due to the Expedition's headaches with the Lakota, who kept guerrilla tactics going with the Discovery Corps throughout their time in the Missouri Valley. The Mandan may have allied with American explorers and trappers to make their tactical position vis-a-vis the Lakota less stressful. The Mandan had a great deal of trouble with European illnesses such as smallpox, and were decimated later in the 19th Century. In their time, they were a formidable presence in the Northern Plains, where they hunted and cultivated.
Their traditional opponents, the Lakota, are depicted in the lower Catlin painting in War Council, the most important decision an Indigenous Nation could make, due to the potential vulnerability of their women, children, and food and animals to their enemies. The circle, a sacred symbol to many Indigenous Nations, is the form that tribal meetings were usually held, and this remains a potent symbol in almost every Tribe's traditional beliefs that still exist today. The practice of chemical dependence therapy in the USA emulates this symbol by having all persons in group therapy form a "talking circle," denoting everyone's equal responsibility for their recovery and helping others recover.
Recreational Warfare-Preparing For Combat:
Indian Ball Game-1849 by George Catlin
Courtesy of georgecatlin.org
Choctaw Ball Game-1848 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Mandan Horse Race-1848 (from 1832 sketches) by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Mandan Foot Races-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Mandan Archery Contest-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Mandan Boy War Games by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Mandan Tchung Kee Game-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Lakota Women Playing Lacrosse-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
The first painting, dating from Catlin's middle years, depicts a game the Choctaw Tribe played, possibly lacrosse, which is believed to have been invented by the Iroquois. Catlin's notes for this painting in his folio from 1845 state that lacrosse matches were an important way for communities to compete with one another, and, as a result, individuals were renowned and found as much fame for their exploits on the sporting field as others found at war. The game of lacosse also gave Tribes a good idea as to who would be best suited for leadership in war. Tribes allowed wives and children onto the field of play in order to 'encourage' (cheer for) their husbands in defending the honor and possessions of their clan or Tribe.
The second picture depicts the Choctaw Nation playing an unnamed ball game. The Choctaw were a dynamic Nation who were respected throughout the South. They were expelled from their homelands by Andrew Jackson, who ordered the expulsion of all Indigenous Peoples from the Southeastern USA. Catlin spent two years in the South-central USA in the mid 1830s. The celebrated French writer and interpreter of early 19th Century America, Alexis de Tocqueville, witnessed the whole removal firsthand, recounting it in Democracy In America... He indicated that "In the whole scene, there was an air of ruin and destruction...something which betrayed a final and irrevocable adieu...one couldn't watch without feeling one's heart wrung. The Indians were tranquil but somber and taciturn. There was one who could speak English and of whom I asked why the Chactas were leaving their country."To be free" he answered. I could never get any other reason out of him. We watched the expulsion of one of the most celebrated and ancient of American peoples."
The next four paintings depict the recreational lives of the Mandan Nation prior to smallpox. There was an active vigorous set of activities designed to train young men in the art of war skills, and to also keep young women fit and ready for any physical exertion that might come about. Horses were raced, and it was often done with the winner taking the loser's horse. Foot races, horse races, war games, and throwing all built the endurance, riding skills, coordination, and archery and spear throwing skills of young warriors-to-be. All of this led up the the late teenage male right of passage called O-Kee-Pa which is discussed below. Because riding, shooting arrows, and combat were all a part of Mandan life, the importance of skill building from an early age was essential.
Here is Catlin describing his painting of a Mandan game...“The game of Tchung-kee [is] a beautiful athletic exercise, which [the Mandan] seem to be almost unceasingly practicing whilst the weather is fair, and they have nothing else of moment to demand their attention. This game is decidedly their favourite amusement, and is played near to the village on a pavement of clay, which has been used for that purpose until it has become as smooth and hard as a floor . . . The play commences with two (one from each party), who start off upon a trot, abreast of each other, and one of them rolls in advance of them, on the pavement, a little ring of two or three inches in diameter, cut out of a stone; and each one follows it up with his ‘tchung-kee’ (a stick of six feet in length, with little bits of leather projecting from its sides of an inch or more in length), which he throws before him as he runs, sliding it along upon the ground after the ring, endeavouring to place it in such a position when it stops, that the ring may fall upon it, and receive one of the little projections of leather through it.” George Catlin made this sketch at a Mandan village in 1832. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 1, no. 19, 1841; reprint 1973)
The final painting in this section is also by Catlin, and is shown by this author to demonstrate that women were expected to be fit and, like men, participated in games designed to harden them for a migratory and sometimes violent lifestyle. In this case, Lakota (Sioux) women are playing lacrosse, a game which a number of Nations in North America played.
Songs, Chants, Prayer Medicine, and Dancing-A Spiritual Tradition Based In The Earth:
Across North America, Indigenous Tribes expressed their spirituality and traditional beliefs through vision seeking, singing, chanting, praying, and dancing. There were songs, chants, prayers, and dances for nearly every life situation and season. Indigenous Nations developed a sophisticated understanding of the seasons of the year, as well as planting methods and identifying times for harvesting crops that sustained them through the winters.
Some tribes in arid parts of the continent developed irrigation canals, ditches, and diversions that transported water for miles to water such crops as corn, squash, and beans. Ceremonies were observed for most rites of passage, illness, protection and blessing, healing, and more. The traditional spiritual leaders went by many names, but were known primarily as "Medicine Men." These leaders, often called by non Indigenous people by their anthropological title, Shamans, were the arbiters of health, forecasting the future, appeasing animal and enemy spirits, healing the sick, casting out evil spirits, and rituals regarding the positions of the stars, sun, and moon.
Southwestern US Pueblo shaman leaders, called "caciques" by the Europeans, also were responsible for rainfall, forecasting times to plant crops, and maintaining a sense of tradition through working with the clans in each Pueblo. Large clan groups, anthropologically called "moieties," were helpers in this process. Clans were subgroups of the Moieties. Clans were often organized with animal names, were also named after natural features, or in some cases, seasons, directions or stars. The clans specialized in observing or handling certain situations. In Pueblo life, the Kachinas were portrayed by men who believed that they became the gods they portrayed in their dances. Pueblo Tribal personal behavior, if aberrant, was regulated by a clan of Koshare, or "sacred clowns," who made fun of targeted Tribal members who were behaving outside accepted Tribal customs.
Mandan Medicine Man Mah-to-Hah-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Medicine Man Attends to a Dying Man-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Hidatsa Corn Dance-1836 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Sioux Self-Mutilation 1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
The above illustrations depict important spiritual practices by Plains Tribes captured by George Catlin. The Hidatsa were a somewhat of an agricultural as well as hunting people, and they danced to pray to have a harvest of corn that would feed their people throughout the winter into the next planting season. The second, lower illustration is a rare visual representation of a Lakota Sun Dance prior to when, due to harassment by Americans, the Lakota decided to take their dances "underground" so as to not be seen or interfered with by people hostile to Lakota traditional beliefs.
For the Sun Dance, the Lakota abstain from food and drink, and pierce themselves when they dance the Sun Dance. Having seen one myself, I can vouch for the amazing physical and mental endurance the dancers demonstrate when they do a Sun Dance. It is important to note that not all tribes flagellate or pierce themselves during the Sun Dance. As an example, the Northern Cheyenne do not pierce themselves during their Sun Dances, but do fast.
Assiniboine Pipe Dance-1836 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Sioux Bear Dance-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Sioux Scalp Dance-1836 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
This series of paintings illustrates a variety of Tribal occasions when dancing could occur. The Pipedance's purpose is related in anthropological literature as a ritual offered by tribal members as a prayer to The Creator and Earth to fulfill a need for that member or the family of the Tribal member.
The Bear Dance is probably related to Lakota Bear Medicine, which is a clan in Lakota Tribal social structure. The Bear Healing Clan within Tribal structure is responsible for healing. Different animals were admired for certain traits they displayed when interacting with Lakota Tribal members. Healing has been a tradition among various Tribes for generations, and in many Tribes, traditional Healers work alongside medical professionals today to restore health.
The Scalp Dance is a War Dance, thanking the Creator and various gods in Lakota beliefs that helped the Tribe win the battle that day, and also for the peace of the opponents' killed so they will not menace their killers from the next world. This practice of scalping was done by some Plains Tribes, and was not practiced by others. In Catlin's Scalp Dance painting, women dance in the center, holding the scalps on poles, and the warriors dance around them, waving their war-weapons in the most threatening manner they can display, and screaming as loud as they can. Battles were an ongoing guerilla war, usually with no Tribe winning, and neverending war. The practice of war was at times a way of demonstrating bravery, with some Tribes employing a practice called "counting coups," a part of which involved riding right up to an enemy battle line and touching the enemy without being shot or killed. Perhaps the place it was best pictured was in Dances With Wolves, a movie that Kevin Costner filmed which depicted his character, a US Army officer, "going Native," and literally becoming a member of an unnamed tribe, probably Lakota. He is treated as a traitor by the US Army afterward, and is hunted and flees to Canada. The celebrated Lakota warrior and leader Crazy Horse was also a master of counting coups.
Lakota Worshipping At the Red Boulders-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
The Ojibwa Snow Shoe Dance to Thank the Great Spirit for the First Snowfall-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Mandan Rain Dance-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
The O-Kee-Pa Self-Torture Ceremony of the Mandan Tribe-1835 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Mandan O-Kee-Pa Buffalo Dance-1835 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Interior View of a Mandan Medicine Lodge-O-Kee-Pa Ceremony-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of georgecatlin.com
Mandan O-Kee-Pa Buffalo Dance-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
The Indigenous Tribes at the time of George Catlin's paintings had no differentiation between what was considered holy and what was not. Every person, place, plant, rock, and animal was from The Creator, and, as a result, was germane to Tribal beliefs. Therefore, there was no sacred and profane, to use the European/Christian expression. The Earth was alive, and all that was created was sacred and had spirits. This sounds animistic, but it really is quite a bit more complicated. 5000 years before science discovered the interdependence of all things alive, Indigenous North Americans already knew that there was an Earth that depended upon each animal and human to not violate or overuse the plentiful array of plants, water, and wildlife and consume them without replenishing them. It was foreign to Tribal thought to allow things to go out of balance.
Hence, many sacred places were identified by Tribes, and in another article, I describe the current horrific desecration of such sacred places by humans drilling, mining, subdividing, overfishing, overhunting, and sprawling in and near these places. Catlin's painting depicting Red Rocks worship is an example of these traditional worship practices.
The second painting depicts the Ojibwa dancing in thanks to The Creator for sending snow to make the ground fertile for the next year's planting and grass for animals. The passing of seasons was as important to Tribes as to ancient Europeans and Asians in the Stone Age. This is not to say Native peoples were living a Stone Age existence, because their worldviews and understanding of the Earth's renewal processes were, and are more sophisticated than any traditional European or Middle Eastern religion.
Although many non Indigenous People associate dancing and singing with rain, Catlin only captured a few dances for rain in his paintings. His association with The Mandan allowed him to document their Rain Dance and Song. As it is throughout the Great Plains, winters were fierce with floods coming in the spring. Yet, rainfall on The Great Plains was sparse, in some locations less than twelve inches a year. The third painting in this series shows a Mandan Rain Dance prior to their near complete die-off from small pox in 1837-8.
The fourth through seventh paintings describe a Mandan O-Kee-Pa ritual. The Oh-Kee-Pa was a rite of passage, a physical and mental endurance test, a running of a voluntary gauntlet into manhood. For young men of the Mandan tribe, it was a methodic ritual to becoming a warrior. After four days without food or rest, the warrior-to-be was dressed and painted. Wood slats were then stuck through his skin and behind the muscles in his chest and shoulders, with large rocks tied to his feet. He was then hoisted by leather straps hung from the ceiling of a ceremonial medicine lodge, and spun until he was unconscious.
There are rites of passage in practice today by different Tribes, but some of them have been suppressed or hidden from view from the outside world due to a lack of understanding or dominant societal intolerance of traditional Tribal beliefs.
Choctaw Eagle Dance-1848 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Discovery Dance Sauk and Fox-1828 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Sioux Scalp Dance-1848 by George Catlin
Commission by King Phillippe of France
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
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Ojibwa War Dance-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
The Indigenous Nations in North America fought each other fiercely, just as other nations did around the world. The eagle, the USA's national bird, just happens to be the National Bird of many Tribes as well. The eagle was admired by the Choctaw for it's prowess in conquering other birds and ruling the air. This tribe, like most of the others, danced the Eagle Dance once a year to the War Eagle, the bird that conquered all other varieties of Eagles. The tail feathers of the War Eagle were used to decorate the heads of the warriors.
The Sauk and Fox Discovery Dance is best described by George Catlin himself...“The Discovery Dance has been given here, amongst various others, and pleased the bystanders very much; it was exceedingly droll and picturesque, and acted out with a great deal of pantomimic effect---without music, or any other noise than the patting of their feet, which all came simultaneously on the ground, in perfect time, whilst they were dancing forward two or four at a time, in a skulking posture, overlooking the country, and professing to announce the approach of animals or enemies which they have discovered, by giving the signals back to the leader of the dance.” George Catlin first sketched this scene at a Sac and Fox village in 1835. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 56, 1841; reprint 1973)
Catlin's dramatic 1848 painting of the Sioux Scalp Dance was commissioned during his European travels by King Phillippe of France. The painting is based on field studies Catlin made, then assembled into this combined depiction of prior field sketches of the Sioux Scalp dance. As such, it is a compilation.
I have chosen to display two views of the Ojibwa War Dance, George Catlin's from 1832, and a historical photograph from the collection of the Minnesota State Library, dated June 14, 1910. The caption to the photograph mentions that the White Earth Nation War Dance, presumably one translation of the Ojibwa's name for themselves, was located on the Gaawaabaabiganikaag (White Earth Reservation), home to the White Earth Nation, also known as Anishinaabe.
The Land Itself and People Who Explored It As Painted By Catlin:
The White House-1820 by George Catlin
Courtesy of georgecatlin.org
Niagara Falls Front View-1827 by George Catlin
Courtesy of georgecatlin.org
Bird's Eye View of Niagara Falls-1827
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Mountain Significant to Comanches-1835
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Missouri River 1800 Miles Above St. Louis-1832
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
St. Louis From the River Below-1832
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Sergeant Floyd's Grave-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Floyd was the first and only person in the Corps of Discovery who died enroute to and from the Oregon Coast. Ironically, the site of his grave was lost in the years after this painting, and in the Bicentennial Celebration of Lewis and Clark's Expedition it was relocated and made accessible to visitors.
General William Clark-1830 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
The Falls of St. Anthony-1827
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Missouri River 1200 Miles Above St. Louis-1832
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Beautiful Prairie-Missouri-1832
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
Sioux Burial Site-1832 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
The subject of Americans ravaging sacred burials sites has always been a sore point for Tribes. At it's peak, there were several thousand sets of bones of Indigenous Nations members in various museums such as the Smithsonian and Peabody Museums. There has been a concerted effort in the last 30 years to return those remains to their rightful burial sites.
Pipestone Quarry on the Coteau des Prairies-1837 by George Catlin
Courtesy of Smithsonian Online
George Catlin painted this work in 1836, maintaining that he was the first white man to visit the Pipestone Quarry in Minnesota, where Plains Indians mined the red steatite to make their pipe bowls. He was not the first white man to visit the sacred quarry, but he was the first to visually document it in a painting. Catlin's description of the site in his own words: “For many miles we had the Coteau in view in the distance before us, which looked like a blue cloud settling down in the horizon . . . On the very top of this mound or ridge, we found the far-famed quarry or fountain of the Red Pipe, which is truly an anomaly in nature. The principal and most striking feature of this place, is a perpendicular wall of close-grained, compact quartz, of twenty-five and thirty feet in elevation, running nearly North and South with its face to the West, exhibiting a front of nearly two miles in length, when it disappears at both ends by running under the prairie . . . At the base of this wall there is a level prairie, of half a mile in width, running parallel to it; in any and all parts of which, the Indians procure the red stone for their pipes, by digging through the soil and several slaty layers of the red stone, to the depth of four or five feet. From the very numerous marks of ancient and modern diggings or excavations, it would appear that this place has been for many centuries resorted to for the red stone; and from the great number of graves and remains of ancient fortifications in its vicinity, it would seem, as well as from their actual traditions, that the Indian tribes have long held this place in high superstitious estimation; and also that it has been the resort of different tribes, who have made their regular pilgrimages here to renew their pipes.” (Truettner, The Natural Man Observed, 1979; Gurney and Heyman, eds., George Catlin and His Indian Gallery, 2002)
Annotated Sources-For Further Information:
Campfire Stories by George Catlin-an excellent overview of the world of Great Plains, Southeastern, and Rocky Mountain Tribes and the Outlook of Americans in Washington and on the Frontier as they relate to George Catlin's Art. The presentation is from a variety of points of view, including quotations from Caltin's Journals, reflections of Wilma Mankiller, late Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Peter Nabokov, Professor of Western and Native American Studies at UCLA
georgecatlin.org-A site organized well for an overview of George Catlin's life and art, with views of 178 George Catlin paintings
George Catlin Permanent Collection of The Smithsonian-This array of Catlin's Art complements the georgecatlin.org exhibit online and at times offers Catlin commentary from Catlin's American Indian Gallery from the mid 1800s
Lure of The West: Treasures From the Smithsonian American Art Museum-This array of Catlin's work offer highlights of the permanent collection of Catlin's work exhibited at this world renowned museum
George Catlin's Obsession-Excellent and informative mid length article about Catlin's drive to document visually the disappearing lifestyle of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
Tribal Fever-An exceptional article covering the smallpox epidemic of 1837-38 which literally destroyed an number of tribes, such as the Mandan Nation
George Catlin-American Indian Portraits at The National Gallery-Nice discussion of the Exhibition of the Catlin Portraits on view in London
European Journal of American Studies:
Wild American Savages and the Civilized English: Catlin’s Indian Gallery and the Shows of London
An interesting examination of British reactions to George Catlin's lectures and paintings on his European Tour from 1848-50 -note-the title is reflective of what language the British used at the time
George Catlin Biography-Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History-A nice summary of Catlin's involvement with Indigenous Nations, especially those of the Central and Southern Great Plains
George Catlin-American Painter-Like me, an appreciatior of the work of George Catlin from a layman's perspective...beautiful, well documented, and thorough!
A technical anthropological book about the structure of Pueblo Indigenous Society by an Anthropologist who was a member of Okee Owongee (San Juan) Pueblo . Essential to comprehension of tribal structure and thinking.
George Catlin's Notes on Control of the Pipestone Quarry of Minnesota-This is Catlin's own position paper on control of the sacred Pipestone Quarry after his unprecedented visit to the Lakota Pipestone Quarry in Minnesota. More than any other American, Catlin was responsible for preserving the site for future generations. This was published in London in 1844.
Text copyright 2013 by Peter Reum-All Rights reserved
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